Oracle and Dell snuggle up on bundles

Promises of seamless support

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Dell and Oracle are deepening their relationship through a bundling deal and a grid project, both announced at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco.

Dell will provide PowerEdge servers loaded with Oracle’s database, Real Application Clusters or Fusion Middleware. Alternatively, customers can choose JD Edwards applications or Oracle E-Business Suite. Support packages for up to three years can be bought at the time of purchase and this will allow access to dedicated support staff at Dell and Oracle.

The two companies are working together to support the bundles through Dell. If the problem is in the software and beyond the Dell team, the call will be seamlessly elevated to specialists at Oracle. This one-stop approach to support means there is no need for a customer to ring back and explain the problem all over again.

Dell is also working with Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco on Project MegaGrid which aims to provide a low-cost alternative to large expensive servers and mainframes. Dell chief technical officer Kevin Kettler claimed that these systems will predominate in five years time as customers feel the benefits of reliability that clustering offers. If a system fails, the grid will continue to operate while repairs or replacements are made.

The choice of running on Microsoft Windows rather than Linux was made because of Dell’s perception that some corporates and midsized companies are resistant to using Linux. Windows is a good compromise causing less friction, he said. The systems will run Oracle Database 10g over Windows on PowerEdge servers.

Once again, Dell will act as the initial point of contact and queries will be escalated to the company best suited to handle the call. The systems are available now and will be priced according to processor, memory and storage requirements. ®